Dani’s Son-In-Law Eggs from the MasteChef Magazine

The first time I had Son-In-Law eggs was at a friend’s house back when I was in high school. My friend’s dad made it for us and served it with some steaming hot rice as an afternoon treat. I remember thinking, how on earth am I going to eat this. I hate runny eggs.

A number of years later, my palette has certainly changed. I now love runny yolks and never eat eggs that are overcooked and rubbery. When I saw the recipe on the MasterChef magazine, I knew I had to try to make the dish myself.

I made this dish using Quail eggs instead of your standard chicken eggs. Soft boiled quail eggs have a delicious flavour and I prefer to use them for this dish.

Dani’s Son-In-Law Eggs

Ingredients 

12 quail eggs (room temperature)

2 tablespoons of tamarind puree’

1/4 cup of caster sugar

1/3 cup of water

Zest and juice of 1 lime

2 long red chillies (we only had the small super hot chilli. I used half of that)

Vegetable oil for frying

Salt or fish sauce to taste

1. To soft boil the quail eggs, put the eggs in a saucepan of cold water. Bring to the boil, carefully swirling the eggs so that the yolk stays in the middle. As soon as it boils, turn the heat off and run cold water on the eggs to stop the cooking process. Carefully peel the eggs and set aside.

2. In a small saucepan, add the tamarind puree, sugar, water, zest and lime juice. Stir until combined and bring to a boil until the mixture is thick and syrupy. Season with salt to taste, I used a few drops of fish sauce instead as tamarind and fish sauce are a great flavour combination.

3. Fill a saucepan with vegetable oil. Bring the heat up to around 180. You can drop a small piece of bread into oil to check if it’s ready. If the bread starts to sizzle, then the oil is ready for frying.

4. Fry the eggs until they are golden brown. Let them drain on some paper towel. Serve the eggs on top of some salad leaves or steaming hot rice. Top with the sauce and some thin slices of chilli.

I found that the quail eggs cooked a little more during the frying stage. I would suggest draining the eggs from the boiling water as soon as it comes to the boil, put the eggs in some icy water to cool it down quickly. Peeling the eggs can be very time consuming so be patient.